Leader of armed group wants land transfer, then will go home

Ammon Bundy, one of the sons of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, speaks with reporters during a news conference at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, near Burns, Ore.

Harney County Sheriff David Ward, in a statement on behalf of himself and County Judge Steven Grasty, asked group members to stand down.

An attorney for two OR ranchers whose impending prison sentences led an armed group to take over a national wildlife refuge says they will seek clemency from the president.

As the OR standoff continues, land-use analyst John Freemuth says that many people feel that these confrontations “cannot keep continuing out here in the West, where a couple of insane people seem to have adopted warped theories of the Constitution and American history”.

A “militia” has occupied the headquarters of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, taking over federal property by force of arms and the implied threat of bloodshed.

Maureen Peltier, who described herself as a friend of the occupiers, said the organizers of the takeover were not saying how many people were inside the buildings at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.

BURNS, Ore. (AP) – A leader of the small armed group that has been occupying a remote national wildlife refuge in OR said Tuesday that they will go home when a plan to turn over management of federal lands to locals is implemented.

Residents of the OR town thrust into the spotlight after self-styled militiamen took over a USA wildlife refuge voiced sympathy for the jailed ranchers whose plight inspired the action but were critical of the armed protesters.

“I need to get home”, he said.

“I got insight into what life is like as a federal employee: pretty cush!”

As of Tuesday morning, authorities had not shut off power to the refuge, Finicum said.

“If they cut it off, that would be such a crying shame”. Ammon Bundy, a group leader, said they would take a defensive position anticipating a possible raid. The charges against the father and son relate to fires which federal prosecutors say the Hammonds illegally set on public lands, endangering firefighters and in one instance, covering up their poaching activities.

“These guys are out in the middle of nowhere, and they haven’t threatened anybody that I know of”, said Jim Glennon, a longtime police commander who now owns the Illinois-based law enforcement training organization Calibre Press.

“This is the latest in a long string of armed, right-wing thugs attempting to seize America’s public lands and enact their paranoid, anti-government dream bought by guns and intimidation”, Kierán Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that their original sentence was too short because it violated a five-year mandatory minimum for arson on federal land.

The group, which calls itself the Citizens for Constitutional Freedom, has vowed to remain in the building until federally owned land is returned “back to the people”.

He then turned the question around, suggesting it was the government who, by virtue of inflicting fear of imprisonment on to ranchers like the Hammonds, should be considered the terrorists in this situation.

“The BLM wants that land bad and they’ll probably end up getting it”, said Tim Slate, a butcher who said he had gone out to slaughter the Hammonds’ cattle many times over the years, using an acronym for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Ted Cruz, meanwhile, pushed for legislation that would help meet the current protesters demands that federal land be transferred back to the states. That’s because the agencies can authorize the land for multiple uses, such as mining, grazing or recreation, while many Western states are constitutionally obligated to use lands they manage for the most lucrative objective – often mining.

Johnson reported from Seattle.